The Red String
by onironauta
Summary: AU. SasuNaru. Naruto wasn't really looking when he found the person at the end of his red string but, when he did, it was hard to ignore. So he didn't.
1. i' the colors I don't know

**Disclaimer: **Dun own. Well, I do have a Gama-chan to put my coins, but that's all.

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i. the colors I don't know

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Naruto wondered who was in charge of the color names put in the nail polishes. Seriously, the guy was extremely creative or absolutely gay. For instance, the one Sakura was using to paint his pinky, right now, was called "Hollow Sincerity". Really, _Hollow Sincerity_?

"I mean, Sakura-chan, this name makes me think of heartless cheerleaders and plastic girls in general", he said, thoughtfully, scrutinizing the little container.

Sakura didn't look away from his pinky nail, afraid she would miss a stroke, but answered anyway. "Because they're lying, egocentric bitches?"

"That, and because it's pink."

The last commentary was worth a punch in the left shoulder. Naruto would like to say Sakura's punches were light – because she's a girl and all – but he couldn't. They hurt a lot. " Ouch, easy there! I was not talking about your hair, tiger."

"My favorite color is pink, so I took offence. And stop treating me like an animal, or I'll go wild on you". Naruto smiled and moved his hand like a cat paw. "Besides, it's prejudice. Not all the cheerleaders and popular girls are lying, egocentric bitches."

Rolling his eyes, the boy moved to put his feet on the desk beside his.

"Hey, you said that yourself. I actually know some nice popular girls. Like Ino."

"Oh, yeah, right." Sakura smirked and used a little more force than necessary, missing the nail and painting her table. "Piggy is the perfect image of the Hollow Sincerity, Naruto. Give me your other hand."

Naruto resisted the urge to press on that matter. Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura were best friends since childhood, and still were. However, Sakura seemed to think she had to act like she hated Ino so both of them could keep their friendship. Something to do with reality check and healthy rivalry.

Ino, as the most beautiful girl of their graduating year, thought her best friend's attitude made her worthy of attention. So, the two kept bickering on the corridors when, in fact, they liked each other a lot. Girls were _so_ weird.

Just in time, the voice of the Yamanaka floated from the entrance of the empty classroom.

"What are you talking about me there, Forehead?".

The girl waved her long, blond hair over her shoulders and walked through the desks to reach her own, behind Naruto's. Climbing over her table, she observed Sakura's nail work, interested.

"We were discussing color names, Ino". He had to talk before they did, or he wouldn't see the end of it. "Like 'Hollow Sincerity' and 'Summer Target'. I mean, it's just _pink_ and _orange_, what's the point?

Both girls stared at each other, and the boy could almost feel the thoughts exchanged through their eyes: _men are hopeless_. Well, at least they were agreeing over something. "Naruto, it's they're not just 'pink' and 'orange'. There are lots of similar colors, and it would be so boring to have them named by numbers, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah, but the names could actually have something to do with colors! Like", using his free had, Naruto took one red nail polish from the many that were resting over Sakura's table. "--this one: _Red String_. I don't understand the 'string' part, but at least it says it's red."

After that, Sakura stopped to paint his ring finger nail abruptly, and Ino hovered over him like a spider.

"You DON'T know what is a Red String, Naruto? Are you serious?"

"We live in _Japan_, and you don't know about it?"

Feeling instantly irritated, the boy denied with his blond head, defensively. "Hey, I'm not entirely perfect. With this body and this brain, I had to have some defect, right?"

"Yeah, right, Modesty". Ino smirked. Then, she smiled and entered "girly girl mode". Naruto cringed. "Anyway, it's an urban legend—"

"It's more like folklore."

"Zip it, Forehead, I'm the one telling the story. So, there's this legend that's popular among girls our age, about a red string tied to our pink fingers."

Naruto's light eyebrows shot up and he opened his mouth to comment on that, but was interrupted by Sakura's pencil case sealing his lips. "They say everybody has one, and that the end of the string is tied to your soul mate's pinky."

Giggling, Ino clasped her hands together. She watched her friend expectantly, waiting for some kind of opinion, before she noticed Sakura was still preventing him to talk.

After the pink haired girl put her pencil case down again, the boy sighed, patient.

"Is that it?"

"What do you mean, _is that it_?"

"Well, it's a pretty lame story."

"It's romantic! That's why you don't have a girlfriend, you know?", Sakura said, exasperated.

"Err, romantic? Where? I mean, let's imagine the string is there, right? But we can't see it, so we'll never know if we are dating or marrying the person tied to us. And even if we could actually see the string, we could follow it our entire lives and never find anything. What if the girl lives across the sea, or is already married? Worse: what if she's in comatose state, or dead?"

Ino blinked her surprise with the long answer, thinking about it for the first time. Sakura choose to ignore it. "It's a legend, Naruto. It's not supposed to be logical. Most of our traditions are not logical, but you participate, right?". Before he could answer, the pinkette took his other hand and started to paint his other pinky using the "Red String" nail polish. "Anyway, I know I wouldn't mind if my string was tied to Sasuke-kun's finger."

At that, Naruto frowned, and so did Ino. The blond opened her mouth to scream some obscenity, but was interrupted by Naruto's innocent question.

"Who's Daisuke?"

"It's SASUke, Saaaaasuke-kun!", Ino's hostility turned to her other classmate instantly, who had a confused expression on his face. "Oh, come on, you don't know who is he?"

"Err, am my supposed to?"

Taking a bright yellow flask from her nail-polish bag, Sakura started to paint his middle finger, impatient. "Uchiha Sasuke-kun. He's about our age, too, but goes to Oto Gakuen."

"You mean that super-duper elite school near Konoha Gakuen? The one for geniuses and all that crap?"

"That one". Ino grinned. "He's a mathematical genius, won a lot of awards since he started studying there. I'm surprised you don't know about him, he's famous among the schools in this district."

Naruto blinked. Then, he smiled.

"Well, maybe I forgot him, too."

Both girls became tense instantly.

"Oh, dang. I'm so sorry, Naruto", Sakura started, wearing an unhappy expression.

"Yeah, sorry, blondie. It's just… You came back, and it's like you were never gone, you know? Okay, maybe we had to reintroduce ourselves and all but, after a few months, everything just went back the way it was before you—"

"I understand, girls. No need to fret", the boy smiled even more and used his chin to point towards his captive hands. "But, Sakura, it is better you finish your nail-polish sample project there as soon as you can, 'cause P.E. is almost finished and I need to go home early today. Grandma's birthday and all."

Sakura looked torn for a second, but nodded, grinning weakly. "Okay".

--

Once upon a time, Uzumaki Naruto woke up in a hospital with a blank mind.

Apparently, he was inside this really old building during one of Tokyo's most vicious earthquakes ever. No need to tell the building fell over him, of course, and he was basically dead when the firefighters took his body from the collapsed concrete. The doctors told him all that, and even more things about his fractures and how amazing was his healing process and how he was a breathing miracle.

Unfortunately, they couldn't tell him who he was and where he came from. They couldn't even tell how old he was. Weeks passed by before someone claimed to be his relative – and that was when his perverted grandpa appeared.

In spite of having an obvious case of amnesia, Naruto never had any problem remembering his "first" encounter with Jiraya. The old man was tall and wore traditional Japanese clothes, which clashed spectacularly with his long white hair. After seeing his grandson in the hospital bed, full of tubes and curatives, he laughed out loud and said:

"Let's go home, brat."

Naruto went home with him. It was a two store house, big like it was built for two entire families. The place was old enough to have more than two hundred years, but was clean and had a pretty garden. Waiting inside the house was the other part of his family, his grandmother.

Tsunade also left a strong impression. She was beautiful and had a powerful voice (not to mention her stupidly big breasts, like airbags). She also hugged him dearly when he entered that unknown place.

The two familiar strangers proceeded to tell him his own life. He was Uzumaki Naruto, age seventeen. Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, his parents, had died seven years before. Naruto himself had chosen to use his mother's maid name because he was already the mirror image of his father; so, he wanted to keep something of his mother, too. He was finishing his last year of high school in Konoha Gakuen, and wanted to be a photographer. Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba and Nara Shikamaru were his classmates and close friends.

And that was that. At first, Naruto was surprised his life had been so small, and thought the emptiness he felt was because of that. However, he soon noticed that human life was so much bigger than any small summary.

It frustrated the hell out of him.

"Going home, mate?"

The direct question made Naruto stop thinking about his recent – and only – past to look behind and throw a toothy smile. Kiba was walking fast to reach his friend, his dark hair still wet from the shower after soccer club practice.

"As soon as possible. 'Baa-chan will kill me if I'm not in time today."

Kiba's slit eyes twinkled.

"There's going to be cake? Aw, man, your grandma knows how to bake a cake, I tell you". Naruto could almost see his friend drooling. "It's decided, I'm going with you."

"Be my guest. I won't take any responsibility."

The metro was full of people as always, but it wasn't so hard to walk toward the platform.

"You know if the train will take too long, dog-breath? I'm not used to go home this time; I usually stay until late with extra tutoring and all."

Kiba frowned at being called by his despised nickname, but looked at the huge clock over the platform and nodded. "More ten minutes, tops."

Naruto sighed. He would be late, after all. Sakura had to try all those strange colors in his fingers, hadn't she? Now he looked like a rainbow. Why couldn't she do that on her own nails?

Since Kiba had started a very intense Tetris game on his cell phone, Naruto had nothing else to do than look around and observe people. It was his personal hobby, to memorize faces, clothes, voices, interpret body language and humors. There were always people running, or walking slowly, or waiting for something.

Each of them had a story of life that couldn't be summarized in a few facts, no matter how boring their dreams and personalities may be.

The white and blue uniform on the other side of the platform caught his attention.

"Oi, dog-breath. What school is that?", he pointed. There were two girls, both of them with reddish hair, wearing purple skirts and white blouses; the five boys near them wore dark-blue pants and white shirts. The clothes were elegant and seemed expensive.

"Ah, that? Oto Gakuen. We had a joint sports festival some days before you, err, you know, earthquake?"

Smirking, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Very articulate."

"Go die. Anyway, you participated during the basket competition. It was cool, even though we lost."

Nodding, thoughtful, Naruto watched the students of Oto Gakuen talking among themselves on the other side of the station. He scrutinized the scene, looking for some kind of familiarity or nostalgia. Maybe he knew those kids, in his other life? Would he ever remember if he had?

A pair of dark, dark eyes looked back and, suddenly, Naruto felt like a thunderbolt.

"You know the ghost over there? The one with dark hair that looks like a duck but? That's Uchiha Sasuke. I'm sure you heard about him, because the girls talk about the asshole all the time. He played against you during the basketball match and, man, both of you looked ready to rip each other's throat with the ball."

Naruto blinked. The dark eyes – Uchiha Sasuke's eyes – were gone, and the boy on the other side was talking calmly with the long haired, handsome teen beside him.

Okay, that was weird. He was starting to imagine things. What the doctor had said to do during those lapses, again? Write a diary?

"Do I know him?"

"No idea. You vanished soon after the end of the festival and next think I know you were in the hospital half-dead. But don't worry, 'cause—Oh, shit, is that a dog?"

Kiba pointed, and Naruto looked down. There, in the rails, was a white dog, no older than a puppy, jumping and barking. People were talking and watching the scene, and the nearest policeman was almost jumping down to take the animal when the speakers announced the arriving train.

"Fuck!"

Kiba darted past Naruto and ran blindingly through the yellow line painted on the floor. "Kiba, wait!".

The dark haired boy jumped to the rails with no hesitation and ran to the dog while the tunnel started to tremble. Scared, the puppy bit Kiba's hand when he approached; taking the chance, the boy embraced the fur ball and started to go back quickly.

Naruto had already made his way to the yellow line and knelt to help his friend.

"You insane imbecile, fuck you! Get here already!"

Putting the puppy inside his shirt, Kiba grabbed his friend's hands and tried to climb.

"It's too… Shit, I can't climb, you asshole!"

"I'll pull you up, just hang on!"

_Damned Kiba, damned greased floor!_ Naruto continued to pull, trying not to hear the sound of the approaching machine. He couldn't stop looking, though, when the strong light illuminated his sweaty face. Bright, bright, even brighter, until his eyes could only see whiteness.

_Great, w__e are going to die_, was the last thing Naruto thought before time stopped.


	2. ii' you can play on broken strings

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, and I don't wish to. Seriously, it's troublesome.

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ii. you can play on broken strings

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Naruto noticed time had stopped because he was still alive. And, you see, he wasn't supposed to be alive, because there was a huge, fast train there to break his head in various bloody pieces. He didn't even know his eyes were already open because said train's lights were so strong and so near that his vision was unutilized.

So, he blinked and felt Kiba's hands still grabbing his sweatshirt like his life depended on it. (Which actually did). Not really thinking about it, the boy just pulled his best friend up with all the strength he could.

Surprisingly enough, it was easy. Really easy, like pull an empty box. Thus, Naruto ended up falling over the people gathered behind him, but nobody screamed and there was no sound of trains or whatever.

Breathing heavy and trying not to panic, the blond blinked many times, trying to get rid of the colorful spots dancing over his abused eyes (he was sure he had seen the "Hollow Sincerity" among the pink dots). It took a while, but he could finally open them again and stare at the ceiling of the station.

Then, he sat up and looked around.

"Holly shit."

If he thought the soundlessness was strange, the vision impact was even more chocking. Nobody moved – every person inside that station was staying still like a photograph. The policeman that had tried to save the dog was there, his mouth open like he was screaming something. The woman who had tried to stop Naruto from crossing the yellow light was still holding his collar. The Oto Gakuen students were still talking calmly, not yet aware of the commotion on the other side, their elegant stances paralyzed like perfect marble statues.

No. One of them wasn't unaware of it. He was staring at Naruto with those black orbs.

Naruto blinked again and pried his hands from Kiba's frozen grip so he could rub his eyes. The pressure hurt a little, so the boy blinked again and again, making Sasuke's figure appear and disappear many times. And for a second…

For a second, he saw something very red and felt a pulling sensation, calling him towards the other side of the station.

"What are you doing, idiot?"

Forget the red thing and the pulling, what the hell?

"Doing, wha--? Wait, wait, wait, you're not… Whatever?"

Uchiha Sasuke was not staring like a statue. He was really staring. As if to prove that, the brunet walked away from his frozen friends and made a hand movement indicating the whole train station.

"As you can see, there's only you and I moving and conscious in this place. I'm not doing this, so it's you."

What kind of logic was that? No, that wasn't important!

"Wait, man, look. You're inside a place where everyone is still like a pool in the winter. A normal person would be panicking, looking for help or thinking this was a fucking hallucination. And your conclusion is that _I am the fucking responsible for this_?"

Passing his right hand through his hair, the Uchiha sighed. "I suppose this is the first time you remember doing this?"

Naruto just stared, speechless.

"If that's the case, then I'll make something clear. Yes, you are the one doing this, and if you keep it, this place will blow up. You have to stop."

Unbelievable. Some unknown, scary phenomenon happens and the guy acts like it was a daily thing. Naruto wanted to scream.

"Are you nuts? There's no way I'm doing anything!" he _really_ screamed, breathy.

"Shut up and listen. Your adrenalin triggered the current situation. You have to calm down and let it go."

_Crazy!_ Naruto wanted to scream more, to argue, to convince himself this was a dream happening during Japanese Class, but… But there was this strange red pulling, and it was whispering around his ears.

If it was a dream, maybe that was his subconscious trying to teach him a way out of that illusion.

Closing his eyes again, the boy breathed in. He hadn't noticed he was panting, and tried to inspire slowly, concentrating on the air filling his lungs. That was an exercise taught by his nurses to prevent anxiousness or stress.

In. Out.

In. Out.

In—

Before Naruto could open his eyes again, he felt the strong wind announcing the train had passed. People gathered around he and Kiba, who was trembling, and everybody started to talk at the same time.

When he could finally look at the other side of the platform, when the train stopped and opened its doors, the elegant uniforms were gone – as was Uchiha Sasuke.

--

The only thing a human being can be sure about his life is that it is going to end sooner or later. Naruto was certain that, in his case, his life would end real soon.

"I only asked you to go home early. No expensive gifts, no good grades; just go home early. And what do I get instead? A policeman calling home to tell my brainless grandson is at the Police Station!"

Tsunade looked absolutely furious, with her arms crossed above her titanic breasts. Her grandkid cringed and thought about the unfairness of it all. "But, 'baa-chan! I told you, already!"

Those words fueled the woman's anger, and she started to shake Naruto's head by his years. Around them, the cops passed by, trying to ignore the obvious display of violence.

"Yes, you told me! Everybody told me that you got in front of a train to save a dog!"

"Hey, I got there to save a friend who was saving the dog, don't mistake—"

" Shut it, brat. If you keep talking and she will maul you in the train's place", Jiraya interrupted his grandson, leaning his back against the wall beside the chair where Naruto was sitting. The boy pouted, but stopped talking. When it came to Tsunade's anger, Jiraya was the expert. It was just wise to hear his tips.

She kept groaning and biting her nails for some minutes, looking seriously threatening. Nothing could prepare Naruto for her sudden hug, so he was crushed by her strong arms while her breasts suffocated him. "Damned brat! You don't have any idea, do you? Almost dying, again! I'm not getting any younger; we'll not take it well if you… If you…!"

She was always like that, Naruto remembered; hiding her fear with anger and violence. Feeling suddenly tired, the boy leaned in the embrace and sighed.

"I'm sorry, grandma. I had to help him". His voice was small and apologetic, but he did not regret his actions.

"Silence! Stop talking and let me punish you like this. Damn brat."

He nodded slowly, feeling sleepy.

"I was going to die, wasn't I? If time hadn't stopped". His whisper almost went unnoticed, but Tsunade heard it, and her body tensed instantly.

"What did you say, Naruto?"

"The train. It was going to hit us, but time stopped". He yawned, not aware of what he was saying. If he had been totally awake, Naruto would never talk about that kind of hallucination, but now, he was feeling safe. "Everybody stopped, like a picture. Sasuke said I was doing it."

"… Sasuke, you say?"

Bright blue eyes clouded with fatigue before the eyelids fell over then slowly. "Yeah… The guy from that other school… The one with black eyes. He was really…", yawing again, Naruto forgot he was talking, forgot he was awake, "Really a bastard."

Before Tsunade could ask anything else, his breath evened and he was profoundly asleep. She exchanged a fierce look with Jiraya and eased her embrace.

"It seemed like he doesn't remember him", the white haired man mused, scratching his chin. "Maybe it was coincidence."

"I didn't know the Uchiha was back in town", she hissed, accommodating her blond charge in her lap.

"He probably never left. We sure didn't look for him these past months". Jiraya sat beside Tsunade and watched her pet Naruto's spiky hair. "This would happen sooner or later, you know."

She laughed.

"What would? This incident or Sasuke?"

Jiraya smirked. "Both. You know as well as I do that it's futile to fight against it. Sasuke is an idiot for trying to run away from it, and Naruto is even worse, going around searching for him."

Getting up, the man walked to stay in front of the boy and watched him for a moment before crouching to lift his body. Tsunade helped to put Naruto's form against his grandfather's back and threw his limp arms over Jiraya's shoulders.

When the teen was secured in his piggyback position, the trio started to make their way out the station.

"That's not the problem right now, baka. What worries me it's the fact he did something big, this time. No fast healing injuries, no abnormal strength; time lapse is not a thing someone can forget easily. He won't tell anybody because he will think he's going crazy, but…"

"I know, he'll go after answers". Jiraya smirked again. "I'll leave that to Sasuke. He did nothing to take care of Naruto since the whole problem began".

Laughing ironically, Tsunade walked slowly toward their car, jiggling the keys.

"Actually, he did the thing he's good at, which is to stay away. It helped, somehow."

"If he had stayed with Naruto since the beginning, there wouldn't be any need to 'help'."

Tsunade didn't have any retort to that.


	3. first interlude

_first interlude_

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**He knew he was in a chinese town because of the beautiful red roofs and the sign painted in a shop down the empty street. To know many languages and calligraphies was one of the best things of being what he was. He also liked to watch the architecture of the different civilizations: how people found different ways to avenge gravity, the materials they used to build houses and castles and the way the buildings changed with time or endured it.**

**Some things would pass through time, like him. Others were destroyed by it. He was wondering if that boy in front of him – wearing a traditional Japanese _hakama_ and not looking chinese at all – would keep being the way he was forever.**

"It was easy to find you this time. You're not doing a very good job, standing out like that."

**The Japanese boy snickered and leaned casually in the closest wall.** "You're the one with hair bright like the sun."

**Naruto laughed openly and walked towards the other person. He knew he had to be cautious, because the guy always had a sword hidden somewhere.**

"Yes, but it's easy to hide it or blend in if I really want to. I think you know that very well, since both of us were ninja some decades ago, right?"**, ** **the blond ruffled his clothes.**

**Japan was the land he had been born, but his parents had different origins. Mother came from a land across The Great Wall of China, where her red hair was common like grass. Father came from the far west; from the great area they called now Rome. In Japan, they had finally met and had their child with tanned skin and bright hair, so different from the pale, dark haired people who habited the island.**

**For that reason, when in places he would call too much attention, Naruto had his special strategy. Right now, for instance, his strategy consisted in a noble dress made of blue silk and a veil covering his whole face.**

"I'm starting to think you enjoy cross-dressing."

**He rolled his eyes and waved his beautiful fan around in a gesture of impatience. The raven snorted at the sight, but remained unmoved.** "We both know I'm the prettiest between the two of us"**, the blond boy stated, confident. Receiving no answer, he breathed in, grinning.** "You are getting careless. It took me just one year to catch you, this time."

**The other maintained his face impassive, immobile like some kind of samurai waiting to make the perfect attack. Well, he had been a samurai before, so…**

"Are you tired of running?"**, Naruto asked, face half hidden behind his translucent veil. The cloth could not hide the shine coming from his definitely-not-asian blue eyes.**

**For the first time during the whole conversation, his companion smiled. Truly, beautifully smiled. The crimson string tied around that pale left hand glowed eerily, calling and pulling, like it always did.**

"Never."

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**Disclaimer:** Besides _Naruto_ and _Naruto: Shippuuden_, this fiction was kind of based on the soul mate concept of the movie _Hancock _plus the general Red String legend. Just saying before someone notices it and point out.


	4. iii' he who has many questions

**Disclaimer:** Don't own, don't sue. (Ha, always wanted to write that!).

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iii. he who has many questions

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People usually say that, when they are beyond exhaustion and are allowed to sleep, they don't dream. Naruto was not among those, and wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing, really. The fact is, he always dreamed. Unfortunately, his dreams became broken pieces of reason when he woke up, and he never understood what he had dreamed about.

He hated to be left in the dark. But it seemed his life was a huge blackout since he had first opened his eyes to see the white tiles of the ceiling inside his hospital's room, one year before. Back then, he had reached to a very true conclusion about his situation: the worst thing about being the sole survivor of a wondrous disaster wasn't the amnesia, or the scars, or the pain. In fact, Naruto didn't have enough of the last two, to begin with. The doctors were amazed and he was considered a miracle of nature when his spin just snapped back in place overnight. Only Tsunade's monstrous layers – and her divine-like rage, of course – prevented the boy from becoming some kind of laboratory rat. Thanks to his grandmother, he was not worldwide labeled as a freak, even though he felt like one.

Anyway, being a freak wasn't the worst. What drove him mad to the point of almost climbing the pristine walls of the hospital was the fact nobody knew WHY. Why he was healing so fast, why he was inside that building when it crashed down, why no one came looking for him for so long. Why he was alive, still.

It felt like he didn't know himself. And that was how he woke up after his trip to the Police Station: frustrated and confused, like trying to remember a word that was almost jumping from the tip of his tongue.

Well, at least he was like that until the door of his bedroom opened widely, revealing Kiba and his toothy grin, followed by the happy bark of a white furred dog. The noise and the surprise made all his confusion vanish for the day, and maybe he was glad for it. "Rise and shine, fox face! You have visitors", his friend called, jumping over the bed like a fish out of the water.

"Yeah, I can see _and hear_ that", Naruto stated patiently, noticing he was still wearing his clothes from yesterday. His lazy grandfather hadn't even been gentle enough to take of his fucking coat, which meant the boy would be all bruised and probably stinking. Jerk. "Aren't you grounded for life after what you did yesterday, fur ball?"

Kiba laughed again. He seemed very happy; actually, he seemed _too_ happy, and it was starting to get annoying. Naruto wondered if that was how people usually felt about him when he was overexcited, and started to feel ashamed of himself. "What? Mom's a vet, remember? I'm a hero, now. She baked me a cake today". Sighting, the blond tried to get of his coat, but discovered soon enough he was caught up inside his covers, just like a mummy. Great. Kiba jumping over his stomach wasn't helping his present situation, too.

"I'm talking about your real mom, which is Hana, your sister. I mean, dude, if it weren't for her, your mom would have let you eat dog snacks. Like, Scoobie Doo", making an inhuman effort to move away from bouncing Kiba, Naruto felt very satisfied when he managed to drop his friend on the ground. The Inuzuka cursed out loud. "I will not even mention that time you told us your mother buys you shampoo for dogs, 'cause, man, that's why you're the way you are".

"Shut up! She is just… Enthusiastic", Kiba sounded defensive, and Naruto just laughed, trying to drop the subject. "Well, your grandmother baked a cake, too, so I came to eat it".

"Your sincerity is touching, Kiba", his answer sounded strained, since he was making another attempt at freeing himself from his bed covers. With his arms glued to his sides, all he could do was try to worm his way out of the cloth, but that was proving to be worse.

Losing the rest of his short – and sleep deprived – patience, Naruto put all his strength in his arms and forced them to open. He knew it was futile, since his covers were really strong and his coat was a _jeans_ coat, but he was frustrated and needed something to vent on.

He was pretty much surprised when there was an horrible sound of something ripping apart and, next thing he knew, his arms were free from the covers. The _destroyed_ covers. And judging from the sudden freedom of his shoulder blades, his jeans coat had met the same destiny. "Wha—"

"Oh, man, your sheets are so old you ripped them like Akamaru here ripped the newspaper this morning", Kiba laughed, petting the white puppy. Naruto stared at his now useless covers, and at Kiba. He couldn't decide what he should pay attention first, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Akamaru?"

"Yeah, it's the name I gave him. It's mine, now, since I saved his life". Akamaru barked, shaking his tail happily and jumping at Kiba's legs when the boy started to walk towards the door.

There were many things occupying Naruto's head – like the fact he had broke free from his sheets by ripping them, or, he was remembering now, the bizarre scene of stopped time and Uchiha Sasuke – but he had to snort at Kiba's commentary.

"_Right_. I saved you; you saved the dog. This means_ I_ saved the dog. So _I_ should be the one to name him."

Kiba opened the door walked out, barking his raspy laugh. "I fear your divine logic, foxy. Anyway, your grandma is downstairs waiting with the cake, so, hurry up and get ready to school".

Akamaru followed his new master outside before Kiba closed the door, leaving Naruto with too many things to think about.

--

In the end, the Namikaze Family – that was his father surname, Naruto had been told, and still wondered why he had gone to the trouble of changing his name to Uzumaki, but, _whatever_ – celebrated Tsunade's birthday that morning. She was still angry about the whole near death experience her only grandchild had the night before, but refrained herself from hurting the boy more than it was necessary.

Kiba also received some of the bodily punishment, appeasing Naruto's indignation with the whole situation. Besides, there was cake, and his grandmother's cooking was the best. The blond went to school in a happy mood, even thought the two boys took the long bus ride to avoid the metro.

Unfortunately, the good mood Naruto had sported was draining during his morning classes. He usually got bored and restless when forced to stay in one place for more than five minutes and, trying to not get in trouble with the teacher, looked for something else to do. Like doodling on his books or taking Kiba's cell phone to play some random game and break the owner's records, just to piss off his friend.

This time, he didn't look for distractions, since his mind was busy enough with its own thoughts.

If his life was a normal life, Naruto would attribute the whole metro mess to panic fueled hallucination. That was the logical answer, the explanation everyone would reach with or without the help of a shrink. Unfortunately, Naruto knew nothing about other people mending their cervical column in less than seventy-two hours. Yep, he was not a normal person, and tried really hard not to think about it.

He probably could go on ignoring his super-healing abilities hadn't the whole Akamaru incident happened, but now… Now he could think that it was not insane to believe in his X-Men _slash_ CLAMP _slash_ Shounen Jump moment. There was just one way to prove it, thought.

Actually, one **person**.

"Sakura-chan… Where is Oto Gakuen?"

The girl had been drawing the graph of a function and, after hearing the question coming from nowhere, made a mistake and the _x_ line became a curve. She looked behind her, clearly surprised. "Oto Gakuen? As in the school we were talking about yesterday?", Naruto nodded, uncomfortable, and she went on. "Why do you want to know?"

"Err…", really, how was he going to explain that? _Oh, I dunno, Sakura-chan, I'm going crazy, but maybe that Sasuke you were talking about could explain to me why he seems to believe I am capable of stopping time. _"Err, you see, I'm curious since that talk about the school. And Kiba said that I played basketball against them seven months ago, so…"

Sakura bit her low lip, thoughtful, and then started to write on the page with the wronged graph. "If you go walking, it'll take fifteen minutes", she explained, writing down what seemed to be the address. She ripped the whole page when finished, and gave the paper to her friend. "Here you go."

Looking at the address like it had the key to prevent the Apocalypse, the boy flashed a smile to the girl and folded the paper to put it inside his shirt pocket. Five hours later, he was standing in front of the hugest school building he ever came across (that he could remember, obviously).

Oto Gakuen was huge. From what Naruto could see through the black, elegant gates, the main building had six floors, all of them really large with high windows. Probably the classrooms' windows, which meant they were twice as big as the ones at Konoha Gakuen. There was an imponent garden between the gates and the entrance, and he could see that behind the titanic main building there were other constructions of what looked like a planthouse, a tennis court and a soccer field.

He wolf whistled, amazed. Looking at that place, he couldn't understand why that Uchiha Sasuke was using the train to go home. He certainly had a driver, if he could study in a place like that – because that was an elite school, no doubt.

But it wasn't important how the guy choose to move himself from place to place. The important matter at hand was: how Naruto planned on finding the Uchiha? Sakura had said Oto finished its activities the same time Konoha did, unless someone had club practice. Since the school yard was almost empty, the students had gone home, probably, and Naruto didn't know if Sasuke was a club type of person. He should have asked Sakura, who looked like someone who knows her idol's whole schedule.

He spent good ten minutes evaluating his options while looking at the closed gates. Maybe he should have taken the train the same time he did – err, tried to – the day before because, after seeing the school, he doubted someone would give him any information about one of its students.

Even so, there was something telling him he should stay there, in front of the gate. That strange feeling he had before, at the metro, when everything went silent and the only things he could hear were Sasuke's harsh words.

No. Now that Naruto could feel it clearly, he wondered why he never noticed it, because, as long as he could remember – and that was exact seven months – he had always felt that thing. He just never acted on it, thinking it was his own wariness after the earthquake episode or something.

After meeting Uchiha Sasuke, he started to be aware of it. This strange pulsing, like a heartbeat that looks like your own, but it's actually someone else's.

_Ariadne'__s thread._ The words reverberated inside his mind, complementing his musings. The voice that said them didn't sound like his own. It sound like a memory of another's voice, the voice of…

"What are you doing here, moron?"

_That_ voice.

Naruto turned left, and there was Uchiha Sasuke, again dressed in his school's blue uniform, but with damp hair like someone who just took a shower. The blond opened his mouth; then closed, and then opened again. What, indeed, was he doing there, listening to voices inside his head and trying to grasp the abstract pulsing feeling he never paid attention before?

But the pulsing was there, and so was Sasuke, who looked annoyed but had not walked away.

"Uchiha Sasuke, right?", he finally said, happy his voice sounded as loud as usual.

The other teen lifted one eyebrow. Naruto felt to urge to lunge at him.

"Right. I think we kind of met, yesterday."

This time, the Uchiha snorted. He _snorted_, like time bending experiences involving trains was an everyday occurrence.

"No, we didn't."

Naruto walked forward, suddenly furious, but the other youngster stood still, face blank. "Well, I have real good eyesight and would recognize you duck but hair anywhere, so, I say we met yesterday!"

The brunet closed his eyes for a moment, as if trying to be… Tolerant. At the sight, Naruto remembered the whole mess his life was since he could remember, not having any memory of his entire existence, trying to understand how he could mend his bones overnight and rip jeans coats with shear force and stop time to help a dog. He snapped.

"Listen. I don't _care_. I just want to know what YOU know about the whole Jean Grey thing with the train and the people at the station, and then, I'll leave you alone again trying to pretend you didn't meet me yesterday."

He was an inch from holding Sasuke by his shirt when he finished, surprised he hadn't noticed when he moved forward during his little speech. From this distance, Naruto could see he was good seven centimeters shorter than him, and had to lift his head to glare at the other boy.

Sakura said, once, that no one had black eyes – not _real black_ ones. People could have dark brown eyes, but never black. It only appeared so. But Sasuke's eyes could only be black, because Naruto couldn't see his pupils, even standing so close. And those black eyes didn't blink once during the unbearable silence their owner provided after Naruto stopped talking.

_Great. It was really a hallucination. Now, he thinks I'm crazy, and I'll also think I'm crazy, because I myself can't believe that__—_

"Tonight, ten o'clock, meet me at the elevator of the Tokyo Tower", Sasuke finally said, sidestepping the blond to go down the sidewalk towards the metro. "And I'm not pretending we didn't meet, moron."

Dumbstruck, Naruto blinked and watched Sasuke walk away like a big feline in the jungle. Just after the Uchiha disappeared in the next street turn Naruto understood that: 1. He had not denied the Freeze-Time incident; 2. He had, apparently, decided to talk about it later that night; and 3. He hadn't denied they had met. Which meant they really did know each other.

Too much information, and Naruto went home (by bus), forgetting about the red pulsing that was still there, never ending.


End file.
